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>> SUNSHINE WEEK
House to vote on bills enforcing open government
Steve Pope/ASSOCIATED PRESS
iowa Gov. Chet Gulter talks with Carla Riba, chief of bureau for the Associated Press in Iowa, left, and Henry C. Jackson, AP reporter, prior to signing a proclamation declaring March 11-17 to be Sunshine Week in Iowa, at the Capitol in des Moines Monday.
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BY LAURIE KELLMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
The bills all are sponsored by Rep.
Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. They would:
"Open government is a nonpartisan issue," said Rick Blum, spokesman for the Sunshine in Government Initiative, a coalition of media groups.
》 Reverse a Bush administration directive by restoring the presumption that agencies should release records to the public when allowed by law and when they cannot reasonably foresee that the disclosure would cause harm.
according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press. They argue that Republicans running Congress during Bush's first six years conducted almost no oversight as the administration went to war.
Shabby conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, secret national security letters for gaining access to people's financial records and a warrantless wiretapping program all point to White House misuse of executive power and secrecy in the war against terrorism. Democrats contend.
WASHINGTON — House Democrats hope to breathe new life into open-government legislation, marking Sunshine Week with votes to protect whistle-blowers, smooth freedom of information requests and compel presidential libraries to disclose more about their donors. Efforts to shield reporters from revealing their sources are not faring so well.
The House is to vote on as many as five bills coinciding with this week's annual campaign by open-government advocates to draw attention to a need for accessibility and accountability in the fight against abuse and waste.
》 Require government agencies to disclose the reasons for awarding no-bid contracts.
Majority Democrats want to use the five bills to highlight what they say is the Bush administration's use of executive power and secrecy,
》 Provide whistle-blower protection to workers who regularly handle classified information, including private contractors and scientists.
» Require organizations established for the purpose of raising funds for presidential libraries to disclose the sources of contributions of $200 or more.
» Make it harder for current and former presidents to withhold presidential records.
In the slower-moving Senate, Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont is convening a hearing Wednesday on legislation to smooth the freedom of information process. The same bill never made it to a vote in either the House or Senate in the last Congress.
Call or come by for details.
Not receiving a vote this week will be legislation that would shield reporters from being forced by prosecutors to reveal their sources or face jail. Advocates say whistle blowers are less likely to expose abuse if reporters can be compelled to reveal their sources.
"I suppose you can make an argument that the entire Judith Miller Valerie Plame matter did not advance this cause very much," said Otis L. Sanford, chairman of the First Amendment Committee for the Associated Press Managing Editors Association. "However, in my view it would be wrong to push for, or reject, valid legislation based on one incident."
In several hearings last year, Justice Department officials argued that national security interests should trump freedom of information concerns if disclosure of information would make the country less sate.
Bush, who in 2005 acknowledged a "suspicion" that his administration was too security-conscious, issued an executive order that year designed to speed the governments response time to freedom of information requests. The order designated a chief FOIA officer, a FOIA requester service center and public liaisons to receive complaints from requesters.
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